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A few days ago, the Portland Hearts of Pine pulled an all-nighter in Texas. Wednesday, they played at home in God’s own sauna. Saturday, they play in Charlotte, North Carolina, where it’s expected to be in the mid-90s with thunderstorms.

Welcome to the grind portion of the USL League One schedule, where rest is something for other teams. This is where you find out if you’re in condition, or just think you are.

Indications are the Hearts are ready for this challenge.

With Wednesday’s 3-1 win over Greenville Triumph SC, the Hearts (4-3-7) are two-thirds of the way done in one of their most frantic weeks of the season. It was the second of three games in eight days, two on the road. The Hearts have another stretch of three games in eight days from Aug. 2-9, but two of those are at Fitzpatrick Stadium in front of their own raucous supporters, and one of those is a friendly against Inter New Hampshire that won’t have any league implications.

The Hearts didn’t get back to their Texas hotel until around 3 a.m. Sunday after lightning caused their game against Texaoma to be delayed until almost midnight Saturday. Portland won 1-0 and got a few hours of rest before a flight home at 7 a.m.

“I’m just so glad we got out of there with three points. I’m so glad we got to play the game. Having to go there, not play a game, and have to come back and have to go again would have been awful,” said Titus Washington, who scored a pair of goals in Wednesday’s win. “Going there, having to deal with all of that, and getting three points. Imagine waiting all that time and losing.

Temperature at game time Wednesday was 78, with a sticky dew point of 67. It was the kind of air that bullies you. The first half was scoreless, and the excuses for a poor performance were ready-made. Coach Bobby Murphy was proud his team swatted away those excuses and was willing to push through being uncomfortable and tired.

“We can keep doing just enough, and nobody will say anything because you’ve been on the road, or you can find another gear or two and go win this thing. You’ve got to make a choice,” Murphy said. “Even without the late start on Saturday night, it would’ve been hard… There’s so many ways you can build in excuses for not performing, right? We’re tired, we traveled, blah blah blah. For them to sort of make a conscious choice, no, we’re going to push. They emptied the tank.”

Washington’s second goal was an example of the way the Hearts found that little extra. Washington got control of the ball about 40 yards from the goal, gained a step on a Greenville defender and broke in. His shot from the left was perfectly placed into the lower right corner, giving Portland a 3-1 lead in the 77th minute.

“Our coaching staff is really proactive with us in recovery, and understanding that our legs are tired. They get us into see doctors quickly. We get a lot of appointments, in and out,” Washington said.

This grueling week has all kinds of implications for the standings. The win over Texoma FC wasn’t just Portland’s first road win, it was a needed victory over a team it was chasing in the standings. Portland and Greenville entered Wednesday tied with 16 points, but Greenville had one more win than Hearts, four to three. Now they’ve moved up to eighth place, leapfrogging Greenville and Richmond.

Saturday’s game at Charlotte against the Independence is against a team in third place, one point behind second place AV Alta FC and one point ahead of Chattanooga Red Wolves SC. Earning nine points in eight days would be an impressive feat for Hearts. Murphy said the team will meet Thursday, and he and his staff will assess how everyone feels. Who plays and for how many minutes is a question that likely won’t be answered before the team boards its flight to Charlotte on Friday.

“It’s sort of wait and see now. We’ve got some guys who can come on and contribute,” Murphy said. “They’re (Charlotte) a good team. They’re in Madison now (Wednesday), so they’ve got to travel to get home as well. It comes down to one of those games, we’ll make some modifications and just sort of stay in the game and slow things down and shorten the game a little bit. We’ve always got a chance to score, so we’ve got to make sure we’re not down two when we get that chance.”

The hardest week of the regular season is two-thirds complete. So far, it’s a test the Hearts of Pine are passing.